Thanks for Renewing:

 

Craig Sandberg

Rosa Frausto

Pete Anderson - Sustaining

Harry Becker

Joe Evans

Benito Franqui

Charles and Dorothy Harvey - Sustaining 

Ruth Keran - Sustaining

Eva and Manfred Krutein

Jerry Parks

Paul Ricci Carlos Ricci

Larry and Lois Small - Sustaining Victor Tanious

Dave Silva - Sustaining

Gene Barmore

Lou Regal

Betty Markowitz

 

 

"RETHINKING LIFE AND DEATH"

by Peter Singer, St. Martins 1996

Reviewed by Dave Silva

 

   Subtitled "The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics" this book is hated with a passion by those in the "Right to Life" movement.  Peter Singer is dismissed by his critics as an extremist whose ideas are not worth discussing.  Unfortunately, those who argue the pro-choice position often seem ignorant of Singer's arguments.

   Singer starts with trying to define what makes human life important and unique.  It isn't intelligence; our most unique feature separating us from other animals.  No one would argue that retarded people are less than human.  According to Singer what makes us a person is our ability to be aware of our existence and to form preferences about our actions and the course of our lives.  Pro-life debaters are always mixing the terms fetus, baby and child as if they were one in the same thing.  Of course, they are clearly different not just physically but mentally.  By Singer's standards a child is a person and a fetus is not.  Pro-lifers are also fond of the term "innocent life" to refer to refer to human life that has no brain activity.  Congressman Barney Frank once observed that those on the right seemed to think a person's right began at conception and ended at birth.

   Singer believes that a person, human or non-human, is entitled to greater ethical consideration than non-persons.  He gives numerous thought provoking examples where science has blurred the lines between life and death.  When does a human being die?  When is it permissible to stop trying to keep a human being alive?  When is it permissible to remove organs from a human being for the purpose of transplantation to another person. 

   Singer presents the arguments on both sides in clear prose without belaboring the point.  For those interested in ethics, abortion issues and the right to die this book is highly recommended.

 

 

EDUCATING WITH HOT KNIFE!

(excerpt from Rationalist Internation)

Sanal Edamaruku

 

   Mother Teresa's "services" did not aim at improving the situation of those who hoped for her help - at least not in this world. She had quite different designs. She allowed the dying to die and did not bother to provide them with any professional medical treatment or send them to a hospital. As many witnesses, especially sisters of her order Missionaries of